How Open Differential works

let's look at the main parts of a rear differential first we find the main housing which surrounds all the internal components somewhere on the casing there will be a removable plate allowing access to the internal gears the casing stops debris from the road damaging the internal gears it also retains oil within the housing to lubricate the gears and reduce wear if we remove the housing we can see the various gears which are attached to the axles these are supported by a number of bearings to ensure a smooth rotation the engine will provide power via the input gear which is known as the drive pinion gear the pinion gear connects to the ring gear which is much larger notice the gears are spiral cut they could be straight cut but a spiral cut increases the contact surface area in this example we have 43 ring teeth and 11 pinion teeth and so the ratio is about 3.9 to 1. a low ratio increases the fuel efficiency but it decreases acceleration a high ratio decreases fuel efficiency but it increases acceleration so car designers need to take this into consideration the ring gear is mounted to the differential casing this then supports two smaller internal gears known as the spider gears the spider gears are often joined with a small metal shaft when the ring gear rotates the spider gears will travel around the same axis however the spider gears can rotate on their own axis we use two spider gears to distribute the forces evenly the spider gears connect with two other gears known as the side gears one connects to the left wheel axle and the other connects to the right wheel axle the spider gears will allow the axles to rotate at different speeds while still transferring torque and rotation to the wheels so let's see how that works you can also learn how the starter motor and the car battery work in our previous videos links down below for that let's understand how the open differential works the engine is providing the power through the pistons moving up and down which rotates the camshaft this transfers through the clutch and into the transmission the power then transfers through the selected gears within the transmission and then out to the drive shaft the drive shaft transfers this into the differential at the rear of the car from here it is distributed out to each of the rear wheels and by the way we have covered how the transmission works in great detail previously links down below for that looking inside the differential the drive shaft is connected to the pinion gear this is directly connected to the ring gear so the drive shaft rotates the pinion gear which rotates the ring gear as the ring gear rotates the casing must also rotate and as the spider gears are attached to this they rotate with the casing if the car is traveling in a straight line the force is equal on both rear wheels so the spider gears will not spin on their axis as they rotate with the casing they transfer the torque into the side gears causing them to rotate which rotates the axles and tires propelling the car forwards the side gears and the spider gears will rotate at the same speed and direction as the ring gear if the car was lifted up when we look inside we can see that all the gears are able to turn on their own axis when needed if you turned the wheels by hand you could turn one wheel and the other wouldn't move you could also turn both wheels together or you could even turn them in opposite directions when the car turns right the left wheel axle and side gears must rotate faster and the right wheel axle and side gear must slow down so while turning the wheels are both rotating forwards the left gear is just rotating faster causing the spider gear to rotate and slow the right gear down the difference in speed between the side gears is inversely proportional let's see what i mean going straight both wheels might rotate at say 300 rpm but when turning right the left wheel might rotate at 360 rpm while the right side wheel rotates at 240 rpm so while one increases the other decreases and the difference is inversely proportional to each other check out one of these videos to continue learning about automotive engineering and don't forget to follow us on facebook instagram linkedin twitter tiktok and the engineeringmindset.com you

Channel: The Engineering Mindset

Views: 39,412

Keywords: open differential, differential, how it works, lsd, locking differential, limited slip differential, limited slip, automotive, locked differential, automative, automobile engineering, technician, diff, welded diff, engineer, mechanic, how lsd works, mechanical, garage, axle, how a differential works, types of differentials, how does a differential work, car differential, how differentials work, oil, traction, spool, vaz fgc, z1 motorsports, denso, technical, toyota differential, ratio, zf, rwd

Id: JQzLhujx32Y

Length: 5min 13sec (313 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 21 2022